Child marriage in developing countries is violating the Convention of Children Rights. This legislation was set out to protect every child. Child marriage refers to a marriage or union whereby one or both of the partakers are under the age of eighteen (UNICEF, 2001). This essay is focusing on the question of what rights are being violated through child marriage and what are the reasons behind its violation. Poverty, low eduction levels and cultural influences have been found to be the reasons for this ongoing problem. Possible solutions to eradicate child brides are higher education levels for girls and satrengthening the rights system. This is being analysed by looking at the UN Children Rights and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006) replacing the Child Marriage Restraint Act (1929). This prohibits marriage of a girl under 18 years and under 21 years for a boy. The issue with child marriage is that young children are being robbed of their childhood, taken away from their safe environment, abused and do not have the right to be educated.
Child marriage is a practice that violates not only the fundamental rights of people, outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also the inherent rights of children, summarised in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is a global issue, particularly prevalent in developing countries, where approximately one in three girls will be married by the time they are 18, where India is high-ranking in its prevalence of child marriage with approximately 47% of the females married by 18 (Girls Not Brides, 2014). Child marriage is in breach of several articles within the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In the UDHR ...
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. (10th December 1948). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
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World Health Organisation. (2013, March 07). Media centre- Child marriages: 39000 every day. Retrieved from http://www.who.int
To help the women in Africa in their struggle with the problems caused by the AIDS pandemic, we must first help the women have a voice and gender equality in the developed countries and the organizations of which these developed countries are a part of.
Imagine seeing a girl no older than eight years old, being forced into marriage to a man twice her age. For many girls around the world being forced into marriage to much older men is an everyday occurrence in their lives. The word “arranged” is not usually associated with the word “forced” but in cases like these the girls have no choice but to agree to marry. Arranged marriages are deeply imbedded into the cultures of some countries with girls being promised into marriage when they are as young as a month old and marrying before they reach maturity. About a third of the women married in developing countries are married before they were eighteen years of age. In Afghanistan, 43 percent of brides from 2000 to 2008 were married before the age of eighteen and the number has risen due to poverty and problems the country is facing (Norland and Rubin 1). In developing countries such as Yemen, India, and Afghanistan, the practice of early arranged marriages is outlawed in their countries’ constitutions. Any such marriages take place illegally or under the radar of the law (Gorney 1). Afghan women and girls are being forced into arranged marriages to settle things such as debt and to secure stable futures for themselves or their families. Often these girls are targets for physical and mental abuse with little or no way out. Therefore, there should be more Muslim organizations that dedicate themselves to the education of the Afghan people about the physical and emotional effects of forcing young girls into marriage and ways to improve the lives of Afghan girls.
How a child raised will influence how he/she solves the life issues include cultural issues that will faced. Government’s policy and legal protections must be considered to protect and to change the negative thinking of public with low level education about women's rights. Religion and other spiritual subjects is another significant factor that can shift the perspective to respect all human rights.
The author mentions a few key take away main points. First of all, solutions must address the underlying causes of HIV risk among women. This mainly includes poverty and disempowerment because women in lower living standar...
Practice of marriage is an institution which has existed for centuries. Mostly marriage is considered as one of the best form of relationship as kinship between two individuals. Marriage usually occurs when both parties make their relationship public, official and permanent. The Legal Information Institute in Cornell University Law School defines marriage as a legal union of a couple on the following conditions: 1) both parties should be legally able to marry each other 2) mutual consent 3) a lawful marriage contract (Gangoli et al., 2011: 26) (Marriage). This definition of marriage is ideal for practice but in reality sometimes this is not the case. Sometimes, the issue of consent is questionable because consent can be provided as a result of manipulation and coercion; thus, individuals can get married forcefully. Women are usually the victims of forced marriage, but not all marriage are forced and both men and women have equal potential to be victims of forced marriages. Forced marriage is defined as “a marriage that takes place without the free or valid consent of one or both of the partners and involves either physical or emotional duress (Gangoli et al., 2011: 26). Early marriage is related to forced marriage because minors are deemed incapable of giving informed consent” (Thomas, 2009: 2) . This definition of forced marriage includes words “free and valid consent” since consent can be obtained but it does not always mean it is obtained without threats, coercion or force. One of the most barbaric forms of marriage practice in some countries is marrying a girl to an object, for instance, marrying a girl to the Quran, a holy book. This paper aims to explore what are brides of the Quran and whether marrying a women/girl to the...
“The plight of stateless children has not drawn the interest of many academics, human-rights activists, or policy makers” (Bhabha, 2011, p. 43). But this issue actually is very important because it engage on the societal well-being. The stateless children are lack of education, healthcare, protection and other basic needs. It is hard for them to access for needs such as education and healthcare because they lack of official identification document (Sadiq, 2008). This is not supposed to happen because the children needs and rights must be protected. According to Child Act (2001), child is a person who is below 18 years old and their welfare need to be protected. The National Policy for Children also emphasize on the basic needs for children such as education, healthcare and protection. In Malaysia, the stateless children in Sabah where their life were terrible. Adding on, they need to hide with their family from authorities and they do not live in safe environment where it contradict from the statement that “all children have a right to live in a safe environment” (Janson & Fraser, 2006, p. 24). Their well-being are neglected whereby they always in the situation of harassed or chased by the authorities. The action of the authorities can lead to neglect of children. According to Jeyes (2011), neglect is the failure of adults in giving the basic needs for children. Besides that, stateless children in Malaysia did not get the full education like the other children because their parents do not have enough money to cover up the fee for their children’s study. It is due to the stateless children need to register as the foreigner and the fee is much more expensive than usual. Thus, it is difficult for these children to have a better job without a better level of education in the future. In Thailand, they do not restrict
At the moment, the active mechanism of enforcement is weak and is limiting the implementation of children’s rights by States Parties. In sum, it lacks teeth. Some of its flaws are imposed by external factors, and others are self-imposed. Even when State Parties take steps to comply with the CRC, by establishing compatible legislation and domestic mechanisms, they will at times inevitably fall short.
It is the basic right of a human to marry or not to. Marriage has some severe conditions. First is the agreement and happiness of both sides which is the most important factor in the validity of a marriage. Second is the required age of marriage for both sides. Third, it is the responsibility of each individual to officially register his/her marriage. All of the mentioned conditions are so important, but absence of any of those leads to the violation of the right to marry or no to marry (Rawish, 2008). Unfortunately, Afghanistan is one of those countries in which child marriage has been an extended problem. Though it is a serious problem but it has not been considered that much. Thus this paper intends to look mainly on the different forms of child marriage in Afghanistan, its main causes, its impacts, and the paper will provide some important recommendations for avoiding and tackling this problem.
Sicault, G. (Ed.). (1963). The needs of children: A survey of the needs of children in the developing countries. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund by the Press of Glencoe.
Ethiopia has ratified the CRC in 1992 and it has made a major contribution in the domestic recognition of the human rights of all children and it had a significant contribution to incorporate prohibition of child trafficking in the 1995 of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Constitution as provides Article 18. The underlying implication of the ratification of this Convention can be explained in terms of domesticating the Convention as an integral part of the law of the land, according to Article 9 Sub-article 4 and Article 13 of the Constitution It is clearly embedded with the Convention that State parties, which have ratified the Convention, are assumed to have made a commitment to treat these as their respective social policy obligations for children. Therefore, the ratification of these instruments is primarily the expression of the commitment of the Ethiopian government towards recognizing the protection of children in particular and to the rights of children of its citizens in general.
The Implementation of The United Nation Child Rights Convention (UNCRC) in Bangladesh: A Situation Analysis, by Atiur Rahman the senior research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS); pp, 13-14.
Child marriage is a global issue, transpiring in all parts of the world. Abducted from their home and family, young girls - below eighteen - are married off against their own will not only affecting the girls (mentally and physically) but the country as a whole. The organization, Too Young to Wed, says “… marrying them off at such a young age, they are putting the girls at risk and perpetuation the cycle of powerlessness and poverty.” Child marriages occurred throughout history and still an affair today due to society’s tolerance. And the number of young girls forced to wed increased and will continue to increase if society remains tolerant to this sensitive matter.
Female foeticide has become a disgraceful and shocking reality of this nation. For centuries, families across many parts of India have look upon the male child as the superlative of the two sexes. A male child is seen as a blessing in the Indian society and since years people have made lavish offerings and numerous prayers in hopes for getting a son. These beliefs continue to remain even though times have changed and now much of the inequality is reducing. The Indian society recognizes a insightful faith in every individual’s right to life and dignity but this rights are dishonored when it comes to women and children in this society. A difference in a society’s ideal values and its reality is defined as a social
While the age of marriage is generally on the rise, in many countries, especially among poor, migrant or displaced communities, early marriage – marriage of children and adolescents below the age of eighteen – is still widely practiced. Tremendous number of couples enters marriage without any chance of exercising their right to choose. Some are forced into marriage, others are simply too young to make an informed decision about their partner or about the implications of marriage itself. Studies have shown that teenage married couples are often less advantageous, may come from broken homes, may have little education and work, low status jobs in comparison to those that marry after adolescence. It could be very encouraging if our community established a prohibition on the early marriages, giving a room for young couples’ relationships to grow. I propose to ban early marriages because they bring a lot of flaws in our society and make the young couples face imposing obstacles during their life path.
“Each year, 15 million girls are married before the age of 18.” (girlsnotbrides.org)Each day there is 28girls every minute being married off while still being children. These are children and should be treated as so, and be protected. At a young age children, should stay children instead of having to worry about what life will bring in child marriage. Child marriage should be banned it, destroys the bright future of a child forever.